As he walks around eyeing the Redshift, Langston quickly notices the missing clutch lever: “This thing is going to humble me,” he jokes. “I remember first riding four-strokes and thinking, ‘How do you ride this?’ Now it’s getting on a two-stroke again and, ‘How do you ride this?’ But this is like going back to school—it’s against the grain of everything I’ve known. No clutch and no gears.”
But after a couple of laps of the fast Pala, California, MX track, Langston has a changed opinion: "It's nimble and light. Through the sketchy and tight sections, it's better than a 450 or even a 250; it's very predictable and comfortable. You can stop very quickly. With four-strokes, the inertia wants to push you through the bumps. With the Redshift, you can brake pretty hard under braking bumps. The suspension and feel are surprisingly good." Grant's main complaint after his few laps was power—softer than a good Honda CRF250R, and the front end stayed stuck to the ground. That's when we tell him the power map is set on 1, the least aggressive. We bump the map up to setting 4, and he wheelies off, almost looping it with the newfound response.
When he comes back in, he smiles, “It’s fun. It went from ‘couldn’t get it up’ to ‘it just stood up.’ ” The power, he said, was better coming out of sandy corners but still might be a little shy of the better 250s. The initial hit was good, but it didn’t seem to carry that full acceleration for long enough. “Overall, though, it’s good. The braking feels good, the cornering feels good, even standing through the sketchy rough stuff, I feel safe on it.
“I really wasn’t sure what to expect,” he continues. “I wondered if I was going to be a complete squid. My riding style is always with my fingers on the clutch. I’ve always used the throttle, the clutch, the brakes—dragging them—my whole life. I thought it’d be a tougher transition than it was. It surprised me by how easy it was to get used to. By the time I had done a few corners, I thought, ‘This thing is pretty stable and nimble.’ In a lap or two, I knew it was very predictable and had this sense of comfort because it doesn’t get out of control. It was really cool in that aspect. Maybe because it doesn’t have the inertia of an engine… Whatever it is, it makes for a nice, fun ride.”
By the time we finished at Pala, Langston wasn’t convinced the Redshift would necessarily be capable of winning there—Pala is a loose track with longer straightaways that rewards top-end power more than almost anywhere else. “But if you put this thing on a tight, hard-pack track, that’d be interesting. It’s really nimble and gets great traction. There’s no way it feels as heavy as it weighs.” Overall he’s impressed. “It’s a good bike—want to ride it again,” he demands.